Extras – Westwood Horizon

Team Jess, Dean, or Logan? Settling the Rory Gilmore Boyfriend Debate

Charly Obermiller, Extras Editor — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 23:43:46 +0000

As summer comes to an end and the “ber” months begin, the Gilmore Girls are defrosting. As we all know, Rory Gilmore has been through plenty of turbulent phases, from Chilton to Yale to getting together with her married ex-boyfriend. Her taste in men throughout the years has definitely well… changed. Although she was seen as loyal and innocent at Star’s Hollow High I think Yale, that unfortunate haircut, and her academic downfall really took it out of her. I mean she used to be so in love and loveable until she was forgetting to break up with men, and going after men who were in relationships.

Teen Jess Mariano

Teen Jess has to be first on the podium. When Rory was falling apart, rather than telling her it was okay, Jess fought for her future. Importantly, he was not only a great boyfriend to Rory, but a wonderful friend. After Rory moved in with her grandparents, rather than shielding her from consequences, Jess showed his maturity in relationships by giving her a reality check about how stupid she was for dropping out of Yale. Although Jess was initially presented as some bad boy, I do believe this kept Rory on her toes — and in a way, in line. Loreali was right about the initial judging though, the smoking and drinking is not okay. From first glance, Jess was certainly not the best guy, however, he is smart, witty and quick-to-play when it comes to Rory’s comments. This is reasonably better compared to Dean, who was lost all the time. Jess, although an imperfect, complex character, he was perfect for Rory. He communicated well and called her out on things that went against his boundaries.

Teen Dean Forester

As a teenager, Dean was a pretty decent boyfriend. I will admit, his opinions on Donna Reed were unfortunate, but overall he was a good boyfriend (taking into account he was just a teenager). First off, he built her a car, and a classic car at that. Dean was able to set their differences aside, by going to dances with her. For a boy who was very uncomfortable with those situations, showing up for Rory like that was amazing. Not many teenage boys would wear a suit with tails and gloves to escort a lady. Although Dean had been put through so much, he was nothing but kind and respectful to Rory and her mother. I will say, I didn’t appreciate that Rory felt the need to change for him and hide things from him in fear of fighting. It’s one thing to not like confrontation, but keeping secrets rather than communicating is just wrong. However, in the end, I am proud of them for reconciling as friends before she attended Yale as it was a mature thing to do — especially since they were a part of each other’s lives for so long.

Adult Jess Mariano

As the ultimate Jess lover, obviously, adult Jess has to be high up on my podium. He grew up to be an amazingly smart and mature man that still cared for Rory so much. I appreciate that Rory went to Jess with her problems as she knew that he would understand her. I mean, Jess even said “I know you better than anyone.” Her later going to him proves that. Later, when Jess reappears, in the revival series Gilmore Girls: A Year in The Life, rather than being together, Rory and Jess were adults with mutual respect for one another. Rory was struggling in her life as a journalist and Jess was there for her to lean on. Even though lots of fans have mentioned the fact that they would love Rory and Jess to continue their relationship, Jess still considers Rory as “too good” for him, making it impossible for them to rekindle their love.

College Logan Huntzberger

In college, Logan was a decent boyfriend. It’s often said that Logan is the boyfriend that Rory loved most. While he did bring out a good side to Rory,I have to say I didn’t appreciate some of the other qualities in Rory he brought out; she stole a boat when she was with him, and got arrested. I will never understand the hype around Logan because he truly did cause Rory to suffer. She went through numerous crises and Logan was no help whatsoever. I get that he is a businessman, but Rory was his partner and he should have been there for her.

Post-College Paul

Paul, known only for his brief appearance, and often deemed the forgotten boyfriend of Rory Gilmore. Throughout the series, Rory would often mention the mental note of having to break up with Paul. This all happened while she was in an affair with Logan. Loreali made her opinions clear, and even called Rory out about her disloyal decisions. Honestly though there is nothing to say about Paul though due to him simply not being in the series very long. To put it into perspective, we don’t even know his last name.

Post-College Logan Huntzberger

Tied for the last places are adults Logan and Dean. Maybe I’m just a hater,but I really do feel that Logan is awful. He was in a deeply-committed existing relationship when he reconnected with Rory — even if it was just with a fiance and not a wife, an affair like that is a major encroachment. The fact that he not only went out with Rory but ended up getting her pregnant is just not okay. He cheated. Then, he proceeded to ruin Rory’s life as well as his fiance’s.

Adult Dean Forester

I can say with full confidence that Dean grew up to be a terrible man. After he and Rory broke up officially, Dean moved on to Lindsey. I strongly believe that if Rory had just backed off once she went to Yale, and not tried to be friends with Dean after their two year relationship, Lindsey would not have been cheated on. So in reality, this relationship soured because of both Dean and Rory. However, I will say I am proud of Rory for not going to the wedding and just standing by –especially after a drunk Dean confessed his love for her. Although Rory didn’t know about the drunk confession, the fact that she still went after a married man was upsetting. Again, Loreali made her opinions clear by emphasizing: “He’s not your Dean, he’s Lindsey’s Dean,” which only made Rory more upset and distraught, which was an ultimate point of embarrassment for her.

Which Summer Treat are you?

Reesha Malpani, Reporter — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 21:37:27 +0000

Which Summer Treat are You?

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Bullying Over the Ages (COMIC)

Sabareesh Dinakaran, Reporter — Fri, 16 May 2025 22:57:18 +0000

Plan an Ideal Vacation and Get a Kali Uchis Song

Jia Chun, Heritage Reference Editor — Fri, 16 May 2025 15:20:21 +0000

Plan an Ideal Vacation and Get a Kali Uchis Song

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What Place Should You Travel to This Summer?

K'Lynn Murray, Reporter — Thu, 15 May 2025 17:26:15 +0000

What place is the place for you this summer?

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Top Five Westwood Yearbooks

Rifah Mirza and Sydney Fuller — Tue, 13 May 2025 16:59:01 +0000

Yearbooks are capsules of time that students can look back on at any time to reflect on their lives at Westwood.

Number 1: Fusion
In first place comes Fusion, a pop of color and one of the most detailed and content filled yearbooks. The creators, Jenny Xu and Emily Lu efficiently showed each and every student’s unique experience at Westwood. This yearbook is like eye candy! There’s not one as colorful or eye-catching as Fusion. Moreover, it encapsulates the culture in 2019 like how Bob’s Burgers, Brooklyn Ninety, and Young Sheldon were one of the most popular shows at the time. The pictures are dramatically and sharply captured pulling in the reader and, to top it, all of the theme is unique and combines all the different facades of Westwood.

Number 2: Every Little Thing
In second place we have Every Little Thing, which encapsulates many emotional memories. This yearbook focuses more on content than the aesthetic of the book. Which I felt like made it really stand out compared to other books. Daphne Longenbach and Amelia Spielman put their sweat and tears into making sure this yearbook was going to move others. Even when this yearbook is based on details of people at Westwood, the aesthetic did not fail at all either. Mods pop out to your eyes and never fail to draw you in.

Number 3: The Heritage 1982
Third place goes to the Heritage yearbook from 1982, which is the first Westwood yearbook ever created. The list wouldn’t be complete without this yearbook because it is the start of all collections of Westwood memories. This yearbook also holds a lot of comedic moments and is sure to give you a laugh if you ever get to read it. With it being a yearbook from the 80’s it would be presumable that it is in all black and white, but surprisingly, many pages are colored! It’s also just super interesting to go back to old yearbooks and see how people from different times dressed and used their vocabulary.

Number 4: Outlines
Fourth place in this ranking goes to Outlines from 2009. This yearbook is the first yearbook in all Westwood history to be in complete color. All the yearbooks beforehand had a mix of both black and white, but we felt this book would be influential to put on this ranking because of its iconic stance of being the first yearbook in full color. This was definitely more of a big deal back then compared to now, but we still appreciate that Westwood worked very hard to make sure this was the first yearbook in complete color.

Number 5: Vision
Fifth place in this list goes to Vision from 2020. The concept of this yearbook was very interesting. The editors of the yearbook came up with the idea to make the pictures almost blurry, but provide blue and red glasses inside the yearbook to wear whenever you look at the photos, which made them clear. Although it is a cool concept, it’s hard not to cringe whenever you see the images and to some people, the point could be hard to get across that you have to wear the glasses when looking at the photos. The color scheme of the photos was a red and bluish green, which was interesting though. Although the concept is very cool, the vibes of this yearbook are just overall sometimes cringe which is the reason it’s at the bottom of this list.

What Summer Vacation are you?

Mahek Sureka, Heritage Staff — Thu, 08 May 2025 17:30:47 +0000

What Summer Vacation are you?

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Ranking Songs from Tate Mcrae’s New Album ‘So Close To What’

Mahek Sureka, Heritage Staff — Tue, 06 May 2025 23:38:46 +0000

So Close To What (SCTW) is the third studio album by Tate Mcrae. Released on Feb. 21, SCTW set records on Apple Music and other platforms within the first week of its release. It gained over 31 million streams on Spotify alone within just 24 hours. Entering a new stage of her life with turning 21 and getting into new relationships, Mcrae explores new themes through the 21 tracks. Similar but also different to her previous album,Think Later, Mcrae talks about the struggles she has in relationships but with this new album, she also adds the theme of being in love with songs such as I Know Love. Every song in this album has a special meaning and hidden clues tying it together to create the perfect album.

My favorite song on the album is Means I Care. Means I Care is about how Mcrae struggles to show how she feels about someone and instead of wanting to form a deeper connection, she tries to cut them off instead. This sentiment is represented in lyrics such as “If overnight I up and end it, run away without a mention, go ghost, I like you the most” which shows that she ends up leaving the person she feels most attached to. While this song was initially much lower on my list when the album was first released, after multiple listens, this song really encapsulates the feeling of the album. It represents her being in love with someone but still struggling to keep a connection with them which is a recurring theme in her songs like in Greenlight.
Next on the list is Nostalgia. One of her most underrated songs on the album, this song brings out Mcrae’s vulnerabilities as well as mentions of her family which is a rare occurrence in her music. Upon first listen to this album, this song quickly rose to the top of my favorites list because it brought back the feeling of her last album, Think Later, which was the album that first introduced me to her music. Additionally, the lyrics to this song feel relatable to teens like much of her other music. The lyrics “And I, I manifested you would leave, So the day you did, I had you beat” talk about how she was always afraid of losing this person and then leaving made all her fears real. At a young age, many people can connect to this line as they’re afraid of losing friendships or relationships.
Third on the list is Siren Sounds. This song was first introduced to me through TikTok where fans had released snippets of this unreleased song. At the request of many of her fans, Mcrae released this song in her SCTW bonus album three days after the release of the first version of her album. While initially I wasn’t a big fan of this song due to how much it was overplayed on TikTok, after looking at the lyrics and really understanding what the song meant, it slowly became one of my favorites. The imagery she uses in this song ties with her vision of an unstable relationship and using the analogy of the burning house with a bad relationship depicts her vision perfectly. The bridge “We’d keep living in a burning house, Might be crazy to stick this out, But we can’t see all the flames around” shows how they can’t see how toxic and bad this relationship is for both of them and so they continue to stay in it. The bridge of this song is one of my favorites to sing along with, because of the level of emotion she sings with and the background music.
Like I Do is next on the list. This song is a little different from the others as she isn’t really talking about a love relationship, but rather someone who’s trying to be her but doesn’t understand who she is as a person at all. During my first couple of listens to this song, I didn’t like it too much because I wasn’t able to understand the lyrics or what she was saying. However, after reading what the song was about, I really started to appreciate the theme of it because of how relatable it was. Many people at least at some point in their life feel like they know someone who doesn’t understand them as a person and isn’t always looking out for their best interests. This song encapsulates that feeling so well with the repetitive lyrics of the chorus “You don’t wanna know me, you just wanna do what I do.”
Last but not least is Bloodonmyhands ft. Flo Mili. This song started as one of my top three songs from the album but dropped as I overheard it on social media and just played it too many times. However, the beat of this song is a huge change from her last album which makes it more interesting and allows a larger number of people to enjoy Mcrae’s music as the beat of this song is very different from her previous, more mellow songs. The addition of Flo Mili to this song adds a new kind of tone where it sounds like she’s taking charge of the relationship instead of just dealing with whatever is happening. The contrast of Mili’s lyrics with Mcrae’s creates a piece of music unlike her usual. Lyrics from Mili such as “I’m pretty and worth it, My feelings ain’t hurtin’, Won’t stay if it ain’t workin’” contrast with lyrics from Mcrae such as “I was so prepared to let you cross all my lines.” Finally, along with the beat and lyrics, the dance that Mcrae adds to this song when on stage makes it even more memorable and fun to watch when performed.

What is your Lucky Number?

K'Lynn Murray, Reporter — Sat, 03 May 2025 16:21:13 +0000

What is your Lucky Number?

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Which of the Main Pokémon Trainers Are You?

Ishan Saleh, Reporter — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:40:57 +0000

Which of the Main Pokémon Trainers are you?

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